My first EV...

...was my Haluzak recumbent. 'Bought a Heinzmann hub motor "kit" from a fellow who had a spare. Right outa the gate however, i discovered that the NiMH battery pack was pretty much shot. So it didn't turn out to be the deal i initially bargained for. 'Sent the pack to an outfit in ID that was able to bring it back to life by replacing cells. 'Want to do that myself, next time.

The bike's always been a slow ride, and the motor didn't change that much, but i am able to haul more heavy stuff w/o breaking a sweat if i don't want to.

The Heinzmann motor is "brushed" (vs "brushless") so it's rather noisy. 'No sneaking up on people with it. And even at the rated 500W, it really is slow. 'May get ~13 MPH on the flats with it. Whoopie. But still, with a trailer full of groceries or whatever, it helps lots. I might replace the motor with something zippier and brushless at some point, or perhaps look into a mid-drive system for it.

I can actually motor-pedal the thing up the stupid-steep driveway. Amazing.


Haluzak w/ Heinzmann

My next effort was...

...a Golden Motor kit, ordered direct from China. Believe you me, i wasn't psyched about that. I would have much preferred to buy something domestically, but at the time i wasn't finding good options. That may be changing now, finally. Dealing with GM was a pain in the ass... between the language barrier, and the time difference it was bad enough, but then i always felt like they just didn't give a damn about customer satisfaction.
There's a USA distributor / dealer now, in AZ, and i've heard that he is responsive.

'Built a 26" front wheel around the hub motor, and that went on to this old, Serrota mountain bike... a real tank of a bike, but perfect for this application.

The original controller was advertised as a "regenerative breaking controller". Pffft. What a joke that was. It seemed that if you weren't actively engaging the throttle, it was then in breaking mode. 'Went round-n-round, getting no where with GM about that. But then nevermind, because with the first few miles of use, the stupid thing burned up anyway. Part of the round-n-round was getting them to concede that it was a P-O-S, and they owed me a new one ... but not just another clone of this one that would likely do the very same thing in equally short order. Eventually, they did send me a non-regen controller, though i have burned one of those up already too. 'Bought a replacement for that from Pete's here in town, as i knew i didn't want to hassle with GM again.

I'm digging the 10 A-Hr 36 V LiFePO4 battery pack. 'An excellent value. I have perhaps a couple hundred cycles on it by now and i feel like i may be seeing some weakening already, but then that's so subjective,... i can't really be sure. The kit came with a rear rack to mount the battery on. I had to modify that with some standoffs, raising the pack, so that panniers could still be attached.

Recently (04/11) i replaced the failing connector in the battery pack. It's like having a new battery... way more zip & endurance, it would seem. My theory is that the contacts in the former 3-prong AC connector were just so badly corroded that i was only getting intermittant power though it.

On the flats, w/o pedalling, in still air, it does about ~22mph. More if pedalling, of course, and i always do, not wanting to be a slacker. And once when using this battery on the recumbent / Heinzmann, i was able to ride all the way to Lyons, pickup 40 or 50 lbs of chicken feed, put it in the Burley trailer behind me, and get it all the way home again, about 32 miles round-trip. Not bad, aye?

It's revolutionized my ability to avoid using the car. With a trailer, i can get tons of stuff home. Then it's just the last ~125 yards of steep, gravel driveway to negotiate ... usually i just walk the bike & trailer up the driveway, using the motor to mildly assist, so's not to burn anything up (motor, controller, wiring, battery?).


Serrota

The Utility - Tandem

Tom was having a garage sale at his home next door to my friends Jan & Amy. 'Spied this old Univega Tandem that he had. Couldn't pass it up. 'Am thinking in terms of making it available to housemates & guests of the BB&B. Further thinking to make it convertable into a utility bike, ala "XtraCycle", as Chuck Ankeny at Pete's had done with his. And i definitely want to rig it as a mid-drive system, so as to fully utilize the bicycle's gearing / drive train... no doubt be working extensively with Chuck & Dean on that. Walt of Waltworks, is going to help me with a suspension fork & rear braze-on for the disk brakes that it will need.


Utility Tandem

Another project along these lines...

...is to make this electric scooter go. It's a 24V system that somebody was just tossing. 'Grabbed it from outside the scrap metal bin out at EcoCycle. The batteries (Pb-acid) were simply just shot, &/or perhaps the controller's cooked. I'm thinking to re-rig it with a 36V controller & better batteries, if the motor can take that. It's really made for kids, not adults, so perhaps i'll sell it.


Kids scooter

With the house producing ~135% of it's own electricity from the 5 kW PV system,
i feel pretty safe saying these are "solar powered EVs".
'Like to see an evaluation of the embodied energy in making the battery packs, however...
Really not sure how that all shakes out.

Then...

After the scooter, i would really be into a side-by-side tricycle built for two, with a fairing / enclosure to keep you & some cargo fully out of the weather. 'Guessing a kilowatt working through a variable transmission would be plenty zippy + torquey.

IMO, that's really key... the hub motors are fine, but a transmission of course works wonders. Unless you're one of those "fixie" freaks, who really wants a single-speed bike anyway? ... it's just not practical with hills &/or cargo, if you're hoping to have speed too.
You don't like it ... neither does your motor.

I think the (2nd) controller i burned-up on the Serrota was because i was just trying to haul too much weight up my steep, shared driveway... at least, it was shortly thereafter that it crapped-out.

Someone needs to build a hub motor with internal, variable gearing.
OK, i'll get right on it.